1. Field of the Invention
The disclosures herein relate generally to firearms. Specifically, the herein disclosure relates to the M16 series of firearms, and its derivatives. The improved receiver system described herein provides a side charging handle, a flared magazine well for more readily receiving a magazine, and a support feature in the lower receiver which prevents carrier tilt.
2. Description of the Prior Art
All U.S. patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Without limiting the scope of the invention, a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.
In the general area of auto-loading rifles, many systems exist which have had their success in military weapon procurements, some of which have migrated into the civilian sector.
The M16 family to include the AR15, AR10 and all of their derivates, has gained significant success with military, law enforcement and civilian shooters alike. Improvements to the M16 family of firearms are diverse in their purpose with new embodiments being developed regularly due to the inherent modularity of the base platform. This rifle design itself has undergone many refinements to improve its functional reliability, to expand its mission roles, and to reduce its manufacturing costs, yet the design's operable principles have not been significantly improved. Today, many manufacturers sell their own variations of this reputable rifle fitted to several calibers from .223 to .308.
The standard magazine well is straight walled and designed to receive any magazine which conforms to its basic shape and latch mechanism, well known in the prior art. The ability of the user to quickly insert a magazine is of paramount importance for military, law enforcement and civilian shooters. Military and law enforcement shooters need to quickly insert a magazine to provide ammunition to operate the firearm when they are engaged in a violent encounter. Civilian shooters, whose skills and ranking within their sport is based on time, need the ability to quickly insert a magazine into the magazine well of the host firearms receiver. The factory magazine well is narrow and easy to miss when the users are under pressure. Further, damage to the feed lips of the magazine can occur when the user drives the magazine into the side of the magazine well. Adding a flare to the magazine well to aid with the insertion of the magazine has been attempted by others. These solutions typically embody a secondary piece of material which incorporates the “flare” being bolted or otherwise secured to the factory magazine well. Unfortunately these designs are reliant on tension, bolts or other methods to remain affixed. Another solution is to machine the lower receiver with the larger magazine well opening, such as found with the JP Enterprises CTR-02 rifle.
Indirect gas operating systems for the M16 family of rifles and to a lesser extent direct gas operating systems, have a phenomenon called carrier tilt occur when the bolt carrier tilts back during normal operation. This tilting creates drag in the system which hinders the proper operation of the firearm and leads to premature wear of the lower, receiver and leads to numerous cycling related issues. The addition of an enlarged boss at the rear of the bolt carrier has been the method used to minimize carrier tilt. This solution does not entirely solve the problem in M16 type firearms, especially those which utilize higher pressure cartridges such as .308win.
With the use of silencers becoming main stream for military and civilian shooters a like gas blow back from the M16 family of firearms has become an issue of some concern. The addition of a silencer to a firearm generates an increased amount of gas blow back into the firearm's receiver with the majority of this gas blow back being vented through the ejection port and the charging handle void of the prior art rifles. Gas blow back consists of un-burnt powder particles, carbon and trace amounts of other gases. Having gas blow back from the firearm operating system being vented into the user's face is not only distracting but also presents a potential health problem for the shooter. Typically this situation has been addressed by impeding the exit of the gas blow back through the charging handle hole. Charging handles such as the one designed by PRJ (U.S. Pat. No. 6,311,603) reduce the gas blow back, but do not eliminate it.
Being able to force the bolt carrier assembly closed, under certain adverse conditions, became a significant design features of the M16A2 and later variants. A forward assist, well known in the prior art, was developed to provide the user a device which could be hit with the palm of the users hand to force the bolt carrier assembly, closed, or into battery. The M16 and the majority of its derivatives are designed, primarily, for a right handed shooter. The forward assist is on the right side of the weapon and requires the shooter to remove his hand from the pistol grip of the weapon to use it.
The present invention overcomes the undesirable features of the “factory” M16 type rifles. The lower receiver is machined with a magazine well flare, also known as a magazine funnel, to aid in the insertion of a magazine. Having the magazine well flare as an integral part of the receiver eliminates the inherent weakness of bolt on parts. The angle of the magazine well flare was selected for ease of use. This addition adds minimal cost to the production of the receiver with a noticeable gain in functionality.
A semi-circular shelf which is designed to guide the rear of the bolt carrier, into the buffer tube, is machined on the inner surface of the lower receiver near the receiver extension. This shelf guides the bolt carrier into the buffer tube and prevents it from tilting down to strike the lower portion of the receiver extension. The void for the charging handle in the upper receiver has been removed to prevent gas blow back from exiting at this point into the shooter's face. Removal of the charging handle void is made possible by the inclusion of a side charging handle which facilitates the manual operation of the host firearm action.
A charging handle has been added to the left side of the rifle. Further, the charging handle location allows the shooter to keep the primary firing hand on the firearm and maintain a sight picture while loading and unloading the rifle. By depressing the knob located on the side of the charging handle a tab is placed in operational contact with the bolt carrier and allows the user to force the bolt carrier assembly forward should the situation warrant it. This is a replacement for the prior art forward assist and is advantageous over the previous design because the shooter does not have to remove his hand from the firing grip of the weapon to use it. Similar side charging handles are used on the FN F AL type rifle, and its variation, but the prior art does not teach how to make an operable combination of components.
A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification is provided as well only for the purposes of complying with 37 C.F.R. 1.72. The abstract is not intended to be used for interpreting the scope of the claims.